Amazon Issues Fix For Random Laughing Echo Units

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Quick Take

I don't have any hard statistics in front of me, but I think it's probably safe to say that across the whole line, Amazon's Echo models are probably the most popular smart speakers in the world. And it makes sense — Alexa, the company's AI assistant, is smart and capable. She can tell you the weather, play music for you, call you an Uber and (of course) order you products from Amazon. It's convenient!

But we give up a lot for that convenience. Namely privacy, as every Echo product works through a series of always-on microphones so that it's always ready to accept your commands. Amazon swears up and down that your data is safe, and really what are most of us talking about that we'd really care what our devices hear? As long as you're willing to swallow that, it's fine, mostly.

Until your Echo starts laughing at you, that is.

The Washington Post brings us stories of people whose Echos, apropos of nothing, started laughing at them out of nowhere. The effect was, suffice it to say, a little disconcerting.

so my mom & I are just sitting in the living room, neither of us said a word & our Alexa lit up and laughed for no reason. she didn’t even say anything, just laughed.

There's a whole Twitter moment with stories like these (along with a few snarky jokes) if you want to keep reading.

It's not that laughing isn't something Alexa isn't supposed to be able to do — tell her to laugh, and she'll let out an annoying "tee hee." But it's not something most people know about, and it's definitely not something she's supposed to do unprompted. These devices already sow enough distrust by their nature, and random, unprompted laughter isn't helping things.

Amazon has no explanation for why the speaker is laughing at random beyond chalking it up to misheard commands. In fairness, I have seen mine light up on occasion when absolutely no one was calling her name. Amazon told the Post that it's issued two changes: One, the command is no longer "Alexa, laugh," but "Alexa, can you laugh?" Her response is slightly different, as well: now, her ghostly "tee hee" is prefaced with her saying "sure, I can laugh."

All I know is, if mine starts giggling at me, I'm throwing it down the trash chute. I don't use it nearly enough for that stress.

Drop This Fact

Research firm Forrester predicts that by 2022, the number of homes with smart speakers will nearly triple the number of homes without them.

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